It can be an urban ghetto or a suburb. It depends on which country we're dealing with.
In the USA it is primary the urban ghettos that are called "the hood", but in other countries (in Europe for instance) the suburbs is actually the place, where most people from the lower social classes live. The suburbs will be the hood in these areas.

The area does not have to be dominated by apartment buildings to be called "The hood". It is all about the social class of the population.

"Ain't nothing good in the hood
I'd run away from this bitch and never come back if I could"
- 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson)

A place where some African American folk ususally claim they are from. They usually aspire to fantacies of escaping from "the hood" but most fail. However some actually do manage to escape from this 'hood' through their talents in the Rap and hip-hop industry.

The hood is also an area of heavy crime, and corrupt police force. Hoods are usually owned by organized crime organizations known as Street gangs. Which deal in the drug trade, prostitution, and theft.

Recently, hoods are becoming not only something of the African American race, but something of all races and cultures including hispanics, whites, etc, this hood-mentality has been spread through the increasing popularity of Rap and Hip-hop music, "gangster culture", and the underfunding of the police force allowed by the government.

It can be an urban ghetto or a suburb. It depends on which country we're dealing with.
In the USA it is primary the urban ghettos that are called "the hood", but in other countries (in Europe for instance) the suburbs is actually the place, where most people from the lower social classes live. The suburbs will be the hood in these areas.

The area does not have to be dominated by apartment buildings to be called "The hood". It is all about the social class of the population.

"Ain't nothing good in the hood
I'd run away from this bitch and never come back if I could"
- 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson)

A poor area or estate within a city or town, accociated with gangs and crime. Term seems to stem from African-American slang although it has crossed over into mainstream language through the media.

Doughboy (complaining about TV news coverage):
"Either they don't know, don't show, or don't care about what's going on in the hood. They had all this foreign shit. They didn't have shit on my brother, man." - from the 1991 John Singleton movie, "Boyz n the Hood"